Professor John Morton

MA (Cambridge), DPhil (Oxford)

Stipendiary Lecturer, Brasenose

Supernumerary Fellow, University College

John is also a Visiting Professor of Aeronautical Engineering at Imperial College.

Academic background and previous positions

John graduated from Cambridge University with a BA in Engineering. He completed his DPhil in Oxford in the Department of Materials. After postdoctoral research and college lecturing in Oxford he was appointed to a Lectureship in Aeronautical Engineering at Imperial College. He then went to NASA as a Senior Research Associate. Following a period as Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Virginia Tech he returned to the UK as Director of the Structural Materials Centre in the Defence Research Agency (DRA) of the Ministry of Defence.  The greater part of the DRA was eventually privatised as QinetiQ and John served as Chief Operating Officer and Strategy Director of the Future Systems Technology Division. John was later appointed Chief Executive of the Engineering and Technology Board.

Undergraduate teaching areas

First Year Statics, Dynamics and Materials (P3), Second Year Structures, Materials and Dynamics (A3),  Third Year Engineering in Society (B2), Third Year Group Design Project (B3).

Research interests

My research is in the Mechanics of Composite Materials and Structures with a particular focus on the effect of size and scale upon the initial and propagation of damage.

Publications

J. Zhou, A. Pellegrino, U. Heisserer, P.W. Duke, P.T. Curtis, J. Morton, N. Petrinic, V.L. Tagarielli. “A new technique for tensile testing of engineering materials and composites at high strain rates.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Proc.R Soc.A 475: 20190310. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2019.0310

J. Zhou, U. Heisserer, P.W. Duke, P.T. Curtis, J. Morton, V.L. Tagarielli. “The sensitivity of the tensile properties of PMMA, Kevlar® and Dyneema® to temperature and strain rate.” Polymer, 225 (2021) 123781. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polymer.2021.123781

john.morton@eng.ox.ac.uk